Mark Twain - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

~ Biographical Note ~

B orn in 1835, in Florida, Missouri, to Jane and John Marshall Clemens, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, later known as Mark Twain, was a prolific American writer and humorist. When Samuel was four, the family moved to the port town of Hannibal, Missouri, which would later serve as inspiration for the fictional town of St. Petersburg made famous by The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Missouri was then a slave state, and young Samuel became familiar with discrimination and racial violencethemes that recur in his later works.

In 1847, when Samuel was twelve, his father died of pneumonia. With the family in dire financial straits, Samuel left school to become a printers apprentice, later joining his brother Orions newspaper. It was here that he began writing. Later he travelled to New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis to find work, eventually becoming an apprentice river-pilot. His pseudonym Mark Twain harks back to his days as a river-pilotto mark twain means to sound river depths and deem them safe for navigation.

During the Civil War of 1861, river trade came to a halt. Samuel, now twenty-six, began to work as a journalist, publishing under his pseudonym Mark Twain. He gained widespread acclaim for his story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County published in 1865. He travelled extensively across Europe and the Middle East and wrote a popular collection of travel letters. It was on one of his trips that he met Charles Langdon, whose sister Olivia he was to eventually marry.

Upon his return to the United States, he was given an honorary degree by Yale University in 1868. In 1870 he married Olivia, and through her, met various luminaries of his time. Meanwhile, his reputation as a writer grew steadily and his sparkling wit became legendary. His later years, however, were marked by deep depression.

He died of heart attack in 1910 in Redding, Connecticut.

The
Adventures of
Tom Sawyer

Mark Twain
(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)

First published in 2012 by

Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd.

7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj

New Delhi 110002

Edition copyright Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd. 2012

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 978-81-291-2091-5

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated, without the publishers prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published.

To My Wife
This Book is Affectionately Dedicated

~ Preface ~

M ost of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individualhe is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture.

The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children and slaves in the West at the period of this storythat is to say, thirty or forty years ago.

Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.

The Author.

Hartford, 1876.

Contents

Y-o-u-u TomAunt Polly Decides upon her Duty

Tom Practices MusicThe ChallengeA Private Entrance

Strong TemptationsStrategic MovementsThe Innocents Beguiled

Tom as a GeneralTriumph and Reward

Dismal FelicityCommission and Omission

Mental AcrobaticsAttending Sunday-school

The Superintendent'Showing Off'-Tom Lionized

A Useful MinisterIn ChurchThe Climax

Self-ExaminationDentistryThe Midnight Charm

Witches and DevilsCautious ApproachesHappy Hours

A Treaty Entered IntoEarly LessonsA Mistake Made

Tom Decides on his CourseOld Scenes Re-enacted

A Solemn SituationGrave Subjects Introduced

Injun Joe Explains

The Solemn OathTerror brings Repentance

Mental Punishment

Muff Potter Comes HimselfTom's Conscience at Work

Tom Shows his GenerosityAunt Polly Weakens

The Young PiratesGoing to the Rendezvous

The Camp-fire Talk

Camp-LifeA SensationTom Steals Away from Camp

Tom ReconnoitersLearns the SituationReports at Camp

A Day's AmusementsTom Reveals a SecretThe Pirates

Take a Lesson A Night SurpriseAn Indian War

Memories of the Lost HeroesThe Point in Tom's Secret

Tom's Feelings InvestigatedWonderful Dream

Becky Thatcher OvershadowedTom Becomes JealousBlack Revenge

Tom Tells the Truth

Becky in a DilemmaTom's Nobility Asserts Itself

Youthful EloquenceCompositions by the Young Ladies

A Lengthy VisionThe Boy's Vengeance Satisfied

Tom's Confidence BetrayedExpects Signal Punishment

Old Muff's FriendsMuff Potter in CourtMuff Potter Saved

Tom as the Village HeroDays of Splendor and Nights of Horror

Pursuit of Injun Joe

About Kings and DiamondsSearch for the Treasure

Dead People and Ghosts

The Haunted HouseSleepy Ghosts

A Box of GoldBitter Luck

Doubts to be SettledThe Young Detectives

An Attempt at No. TwoHuck Mounts Guard

The PicnicHuck on Injun Joe's Track

The 'Revenge' JobAid for the Widow

The Welchman ReportsHuck Under FireThe Story Circulated

A New SensationHope Giving Way to Despair

An Exploring ExpeditionTrouble Commences

Lost In the CaveTotal DarknessFound but not Saved

Tom Tells the Story of their EscapeTom's Enemy in Safe Quarters

The Fate of Injun JoeHuck and Tom Compare Notes

An Expedition to the CaveProtection Against Ghosts

'An Awful Snug Place'A Reception at the Widow Douglas's

Springing a SecretMr. Jones' Surprise a Failure

A New Order of ThingsPoor HuckNew Adventures Planned

~ Chapter One ~

T OM!"

No answer.

"TOM!"

No answer.

"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!"

No answer.

The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked THROUGH them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not serviceshe could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:

"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll"

She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.

"I never did see the beat of that boy!"

She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato vines and "jimpson" weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom. So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and shouted:

"Y-o-u-u TOM!"

There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.